After recently having struggles with maintaining my precepts, a spiritual guide suggested I write out a declaration of why I am going to abstain completely from alcohol. I thought I would post what I wrote so that maybe it'll encourage others or help them articulate their feelings towards abstinence.

I do not drink alcohol because I do not want to have a part in an industry that propagates misery and dependence.

I do not drink alcohol because I do not want to encourage a culture rife with promiscuity, violence, recklessness, and exploitation.

I do not drink alcohol because I have compassion for my body and mind.

I do not drink alcohol because, when faced with frustration, anger, and sadness, I can accept and overcome my pain instead of hiding from it behind a wall of chemicals.

I do not drink alcohol because I am smart enough, funny enough, and kind enough to succeed in social situations without the need for any artificial support.

I do not drink alcohol because responsibility, self-control, and heedfulness are foundational aspects of my interaction with the world, not obstacles to be suppressed in the pursuit of pleasure.

I do not drink alcohol because clear comprehension and mindfulness are greater sources of joy than any chemical or any altered state.

I hope that maybe this manifesto or whatever helps other people who might be struggling to maintain their sobriety in an intoxication culture. Stay strong!

Gain and loss, status and disgrace, censure and praise, pleasure and pain:these conditions among human beings are inconstant,impermanent, subject to change.

He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them. But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side, if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion … ...He must be able to hear them from persons who actually believe them … he must know them in their most plausible and persuasive form.John Stuart Mill

it's not an easy undertaking, but will have many rewards. I wish you all the best with it. Make sure you get some local 'physical world' assistance if you need it.

I've never really liked alcohol, but my sweet poison of choice was weed, and it took a fair bit for me to finally give that up. In the end if was a few bad experiences that did it. I was lying in bed, unable to get to sleep because once again I felt like I was kind of floating out of my physical body in a very unpleasant way. It was sickening. Plus when I closed my eyes, I could perceive that my aura was sort of distorted and expanded, and temporarily out of my control. I made myself deeply and honestly witness all of these effects, asking myself if this was really worth it.

I don't advocate taking alcohol to the point of such sickening results, of course. But if you do experience any negative effects, do tune in to them with as much awareness as possible. It helps to be able to bring them to mind later on, when you might feel tempted to indulge. If I ever feel tempted to 'call an old acquaintance' and get a hold of some weed, I remind myself of those sickening experiences mentioned above right away, and the fleeting desire soon passes.

manas

Then the Blessed One, picking up a tiny bit of dust with the tip of his fingernail, said to the monk, "There isn't even this much form...feeling...perception...fabrications...consciousness that is constant, lasting, eternal, not subject to change, that will stay just as it is as long as eternity." (SN 22.97)

From STANZAS FOR A NOVICE MONK by Najarjuna with commentary by Lama Mipham

A Sober Mind

When one drinks alcoholMindfulness decreasesAnd the ascetic becomes uncontrolledUncontrolled, the discipline crumblesRemember the advice of the MasterIntoxication increases negativitySo do not even drink that amountHeld on the tip of a blade of grass

There is an anecdote of a monk before whom was placed a keg of beer, a sheep and a woman. The monk was asked to take his choice between drinking the beer, killing the sheep, or raping the woman. Thinking that drinking was the least of the three evils,he drank the entire keg of beer. So, however he lost all awareness. He then killed the sheep and raped the woman as well.

It is because of incidents like this that the Buddha said:"A member of my monkhood should not drink or pour for another even the quantity of alcohol that can be held on the of a blade of grass. A monk that drinks is not fit to be a practiticioner of the Dharma and I would not be his teacher."

I enjoy this teaching as a warning against the danger of alcohol abuse!

I have tried to stop drinking alcohol many times, but was never successful completely. Many times I had periods of abstinence, but this was mostly when I was in the rural parts of country, away from my friends. Few months ago I was even able to spend my time with friends without alcohol when they were drinking. But again, not much later I started to drink some beer occasionally. Now I am going to try again not to drink, altough even now I'm not drinking much.

I don't drink alcohol because the fifth precepts says not to.I don't have any other reason than that. I used to like a nice cold beer after work, and I home-brewed for fun, to save money, and share with friends. For me, alcohol has been a good part of my upbringing, good times with friends, etc.I guess I've been lucky, not really had any negative experiences with it. But no longer. It's been a bit more than 2 years now teetotal.

Then, saturated with joy, you will put an end to suffering and stress.SN 9.11

LonesomeYogurt wrote:After recently having struggles with maintaining my precepts, a spiritual guide suggested I write out a declaration of why I am going to abstain completely from alcohol. I thought I would post what I wrote so that maybe it'll encourage others or help them articulate their feelings towards abstinence.

I do not drink alcohol because I do not want to have a part in an industry that propagates misery and dependence.

I do not drink alcohol because I do not want to encourage a culture rife with promiscuity, violence, recklessness, and exploitation.

I do not drink alcohol because I have compassion for my body and mind.

I do not drink alcohol because, when faced with frustration, anger, and sadness, I can accept and overcome my pain instead of hiding from it behind a wall of chemicals.

I do not drink alcohol because I am smart enough, funny enough, and kind enough to succeed in social situations without the need for any artificial support.

I do not drink alcohol because responsibility, self-control, and heedfulness are foundational aspects of my interaction with the world, not obstacles to be suppressed in the pursuit of pleasure.

I do not drink alcohol because clear comprehension and mindfulness are greater sources of joy than any chemical or any altered state.

I hope that maybe this manifesto or whatever helps other people who might be struggling to maintain their sobriety in an intoxication culture. Stay strong!

Do you know what I so wish that you had posted this last year when I was taking the step to cut out alcohol. I think an exercise such as this is incredibly useful. I found it quite difficult to seperate the act itself with the life and relationship/events that it takes part it. The two are really tightly connected and so by focusing on alcohol and why you are choosing not to drink it makes it much clearer for you when dealing with a situation.

Now I haven't touched alohol for some time it's easy to just say "dont do it" as some posters on here unhelpfully suggested to me, but this itself and the exercise of writing it out I hope will be very benificial to to other (I may even use this with a friend who, whilst not abstaining for 5th precept reasons, needs to cut alcohol out of their life)

Thanks (^_^)

Here where a thousandcaptains swore grand conquestTall grasses their monument.

Two quotes from Ajahn Fuang are maybe be up to topic and maybe an inspiration:

*** A young man was discussing the precepts with Ajaan Fuang and came to number five, against taking intoxicants: "The Buddha forbade alcohol because most people lose their mindfulness when they drink it, right? But if you drink mindfully it's okay, isn't it, Than Phaw?"

"If you were really mindful," he answered, "you wouldn't drink it in the first place."

*** There seem to be more excuses for breaking the fifth precept than for any other. One evening another student was conversing with Ajaan Fuang at the same time that a group of people were sitting around them in meditation. "I can't observe the fifth precept," he said, "because I'm under a lot of group pressure. When we have social occasions at work, and everyone else in the group is drinking, I have to drink along with them."

Ajaan Fuang pointed to the people sitting around them and asked, "This group isn't asking you to drink. Why don't you give in to their group pressure instead?"

Just that! *smile*...We Buddhists must find the courage to leave our temples and enter the temples of human experience, temples that are filled with suffering. If we listen to Buddha, Christ, or Gandhi, we can do nothing else. The refugee camps, the prisons, the ghettos, and the battlefields will become our temples. We have so much work to do. ... Peace is Possible! Step by Step. - Samtach Preah Maha Ghosananda "Step by Step" http://www.ghosananda.org/bio_book.html

BUT! it is important to become a real Buddhist first. Like Punna did: Punna Sutta Nate sante baram sokham _()_

As the song says "I drink alone, yeah / With nobody else / You know when I drink alone / I prefer to be by myself." All you really have to do to give up drinking is spend some time sober in a bar and watch how ridiculous people behave when drunk, and realize that's how you look. That's the cure.

BBBeen there, done that, threw up on the bouncer's T-shirt

Author of Redneck Buddhism: or Will You Reincarnate as Your Own Cousin?

Ha ha. It's so true. I can't bear to be out places where there will be loads of drunk people now and I suppose at the time that seemed like part of the problem, that I wouldn't want to go to these places. How things change

Here where a thousandcaptains swore grand conquestTall grasses their monument.

He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them. But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side, if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion … ...He must be able to hear them from persons who actually believe them … he must know them in their most plausible and persuasive form.John Stuart Mill

What do you guys do when friends invite you out for a beer? Do you justgo and order a club soda?

I ask because I want to cut out alcohol totally, but I still feel the social pressure to drink. I feel lame that I even give into this pressure...although, I think I'm on the road to eventually cutting out alcohol for good. I barely drink as is, but have not totally abstained.